Linguistic systems differ in how much gendered information they carry; some incorporate gender into their grammatical structure, other only in pronouns, whereas some lack such gendered forms. While prior research shows that language shapes gender-related cognition and norms, its influence on individuals’ self-concept remains unclear. Given language's central role in shaping both social and personal experience, we investigated whether grammatical gender affects gender identity centrality, i.e. the personal importance of gender, controlling for relevant confounds.

To examine this question, we conducted two complementary studies. Study 1 used a large-scale, cross-cultural survey across 43 countries (N = 18,045) to assess associations between grammatical gender and gender identity centrality, accounting for cultural and demographic variables. Study 2 employed an experimental design to test the causal effects of language genderedness on momentary gender identity centrality and its interaction with participant gender, by manipulating the language context in which participants wrote about themselves.